Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Not much else you can do for washing a car in the winter here in WI and even car washes shut down at 10 degrees so you can go a number of weeks without a wash and lots of salt build up.
Over the summer I will just take it to a professional here.

So I am extremely new to this whole detailing thing. By new I clearly mean I've never done it before! I have read all the posts in this thread and know the various products that everyone uses, my problem is I don't even know where to begin or the steps I should follow, the do's or the don'ts. My ats is black diamond, and I live in Northern Ontario where road salt is very prominent. Not sure if I should use a sealer or wax. Right now all I'm doing is washing it with a turtle wax soap and drying it off on a weekly bases, even though it could use it daily! Ha! Any hints/ pointers/ procedures would help me out a ton! Thanks! Btw loving the Cadillac forum, check things out every day!

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Originally Posted by 77MINO77

So I am extremely new to this whole detailing thing. By new I clearly mean I've never done it before! I have read all the posts in this thread and know the various products that everyone uses, my problem is I don't even know where to begin or the steps I should follow, the do's or the don'ts. My ats is black diamond, and I live in Northern Ontario where road salt is very prominent. Not sure if I should use a sealer or wax. Right now all I'm doing is washing it with a turtle wax soap and drying it off on a weekly bases, even though it could use it daily! Ha! Any hints/ pointers/ procedures would help me out a ton! Thanks! Btw loving the Cadillac forum, check things out every day!

You're lucky its Black Diamond since the metallic hides flaws.

Aside from actual cleaning, which is a temporary condition, the top priority is to reduce wear and tear on the paint, which is a permanent condition.

Wear is reduced by limiting the amount of contact with the paint while detailing and minimizing the damage from the contact that does occur.

Start cleaning by dislodging as much dirt as you can with your water source.

Then use two buckets to wash. One for the "suds" and a separate one for frequent rinsing of whatever you wash with to prevent dirt it has picked up from being dragged across the paint. Until you have two buckets, you should frequently rinse it out with your water source but obviously that takes longer and wastes water.

Use a high quality washing liquid. I have not found any really good ones sold by a brick and mortar store. What you want is something that loosens the dirt but also is extremely slippery so loosened dirt slides easily on a layer of the "soap". The more foam the better since it helps suspend dirt away from the surface. This is one area where the really good stuff is actually cheaper than the B&M store stuff. I use Chemical Guys Citruswash+gloss but believe there are numerous products just as good. You need just a cap full for 5 gallons of water, which makes these kinds of products very cheap per wash, despite being expensive per ounce. The only problem is I don't know anywhere to get the good ones except for online stores like Detailed Image or Auto Geeks.

Use a high quality mitt that is very soft and pulls the dirt into itself instead of dragging it across the paint, and rinse constantly.

A lot of damage is done drying a car. Its normal for small amounts of dirt to be pulled from cracks and crevices during the final rinse. If drying by contact, the last pass will be over essentially dry paint and grinding that dirt into the paint. If you contact dry, use a thick nap microfiber. That will pull much of the dirt into itself to minimize abrasion of the paint. To completely eliminate drying damage, get a high powered air dryer (invented for large pet groomers and then souped up and re-tasked for detailers). The powerful ones run in the three hundreds up but have a very long life for DIY detailers where it won't be used continuously like a dog groomer would.

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

77MINO77, do not follow my washing routine in my previous post in this thread!

I have my lawyer screen all my posts BEFORE I post them. I used to pass them by him after the fact like you do. But then I had to do a lot of what you just did (except for real). LoL

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Originally Posted by rspitler

Or you could use an electric leaf blower for drying. That works really well got me.

Yes you can. I'd say a leaf blower is better (for the paint) than contact drying.

But they don't blow filtered air or heated air or have attachments to speed the drying process. The last two are very nice. I see it sort of analogous to using a manual toothbrush versus an electric one, with contact drying being like whatever Don probably does to his teeth. Zing!

Blow drying takes different skills and one is getting rid of the micro drops formed when the original full size drops get blasted by high velocity air. Being smaller, they self dry into micro waterspots failrly quickly. Heat and focused air help avoid that.

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Since there is a forum here just for detailing, etc. I'm moving this thread there.

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Go to www.autogeek.net and get their detailing CD. Pour a decent bourbon and water and kick back for a half hour.

and take a look at the clever insert for drywall mud buckets at www.gritguard.com . Worth their weight in gold. You will absolutely flip when you see the amount of GRIT in the washwater bucket. Use a GOOD sheepswool mitt for washing and (edit) swish/squeeze in the wash water bucket (edit) often.

You'll sink several hundred dollars into a basic car and paint maintenance selection .................... That small tub of Pinnacle Brazilian Carnauba wax (on the PorterCable box) costs just about $100 now.

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Originally Posted by 77MINO77

Hoosier Daddy, I have a hose/floor drain right in my garage so to eliminate paint contact using the two bucket method would rinsing with the hose be better?

If I'm understanding the question, rinsing the mitt with fresh water COULD be better than a rinse bucket. The rinse bucket will have increasing amounts of very fine dirt suspended in the water. On the other hand, squeezing and releasing the mitt while submerged will get more trapped dirt from the car out of it than rinsing in flowing water. And thoroughly rinsing the mitt with a hose would take longer than dunk, swish, squeeze, squeeze, swish in a bucket.

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

So with everyones tips i tried my hand at detailing my ats this afternoon and my car looks fantastic!! I used a variety of Autoglym products and they worked great, thanks for everyones input. Here are some before and after pics! The pics aren't the greatest from my iPhone.

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Quick question for the pros out there. Washed my Black Raven ATS last night and was rushed to where I couldnt dry it properly, of course now I have some pretty severe water spots on both the painted surfaces along with glass. Any tips on products/techniques to use on removing them?

Notes: Will probably be done by hand and I have not attempted to wash it again since I first saw them. (At work panicking now)

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

I got the Zaino z8 sealer spray and it seems to have worked to negate all the pollen from the trees and dust in the air. I parked under a tree and I came back to get a ton of pollen on my car, but it seems as if the sealer helps it not stick to the paint because the second I drove off it all blew right off.

My issue is the front bumper has so many marks all over it, not necessarily rock chips, but some sort of scuffs could be from anything maybe the bugs on the highway? I cant get it off with the polish sprays or washing it thoroughly. Anyone have any advice?

Re: Car Cleaning/Detailing Thread

Originally Posted by listrats

My issue is the front bumper has so many marks all over it, not necessarily rock chips, but some sort of scuffs could be from anything maybe the bugs on the highway? I cant get it off with the polish sprays or washing it thoroughly. Anyone have any advice?

So I take that to mean there is nothing left stuck to the paint. If it is scuffs you can probably get rid of them all with a DA but that's not something you want to do often since it gets rid of the scuffs by taking off the clearcoat that's scuffed. If you will be driving in the same conditions you might want to get some clear bra material there or even some of the new 3M spray on stuff. It might need redoing every year but its cheap and easy and should keep the paint safe from things like bugs or most rocks.